The Pursuit of Dreams
by Haha Pseudonym
Summary: The pursuit of dreams can lead to straying too far from reality. And sometime, it's too far to come back. But are dreams better than reality? Is living in falsehood better than the truth?


**The Pursuit of Dreams**

**I thought I might give my own stereotypical AU a go and this is what came of it.**

**NOTE: I don't actually know the names of Hermione's parents but I read Emma and Dan in a different fic that I can't remember the name of, but credit to that author.**

**I'm not quite J.K Rowling, but I have been told the resemblance is uncanny. Actually no... no I haven't. So resemblance or no, I don't own Harry Potter.**

Harry sat by the window at the Dursley's and watched as rain trickled down the pane. He was exempt from the gardening today as Aunt Petunia had thought he wouldn't do a satisfactory job because it was raining. His usual chores that needed to be done inside were still waiting for him but he was too comfortable to move right then.

Excitement rose within him as he remembered that this was the day he was to be heading to the Weasley's for the rest of the summer. Ron had sent Pig over with multiple reminders that today was the day that they would be coming to pick him up.

To say that Harry was excited about leaving was an understatement. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had been distant, only asking Harry to do his chores in clipped tones. They had been quick to ignite though. Quicker than usual. Even so much as a muttered word that wasn't "Yes Aunt Petunia" or "Of course Uncle Vernon" was reprimanded. Dudley had been particularly horrid about Harry's nightmares and his parents being dead was a usual topic of conversation between the cousins- not that it really counted as conversation.

Ron and Hermione had been distant as well. Their letters hadn't given any indication of what they had been doing this summer and Harry had no idea where Hermione even was.

Today was the day that would change though because they couldn't ignore him if they were face to face.

"Boy!" came Uncle Vernon's shout from downstairs. "The dishes aren't done and the shelves haven't been dusted. Get down here." Harry stood and trudged down the stairs with slumped shoulders.

"Dad's really mad at you _freak_." said Dudley as he shouldered his way past Harry. Harry ignored him and continued into the kitchen.

As he walked through the door Vernon roughly grabbed Harry's hair and put his purple face right in close. "Get started boy. I better not catch you slacking again." letting go of Harry's hair and shoving him into the kitchen, Vernon proceeded to go and plop down on the couch.

Harry began to work on the dishes while his relatives sat around the TV watching some stupid reality show. Harry scrubbed each dish to perfection. After rinsing, drying and putting the dishes away, he moved on to dust the shelves and wipe the counter tops for good measure.

Once finished, Harry returned to his room and re-read one of Ron's letters.

_Hey mate,_

_How is it with the muggles. Hope they're not being too horrible._

_Mum won't quit talking about you. "Oh, the poor boy, must be so _

_horrible with those people." You know how she is. Can't wait to _

_you out of there though. Dad and I are coming to get you on friday _

_at 3:00. See you then. I gotta go, Ginny's spouting some garbage_

_about Fred and George stealing her sweater. Total load of dung though,_

_I stole it. Anyway, I'll see you on Friday. Hang in there until then okay?_

_From Ron. _

Harry glanced at the clock. 1:30 it read. Less than a couple of hours and he would be out of Privet Drive for the rest of the holidays.

He turned to the mess of clothes and junk that covered his trunk and sighed. He was going to have to clean that up. Not for the first time he wished that he was allowed to do magic outside of school so that he could do it with just a wave of his wand.

An hour later saw the room with a near bursting trunk, an overflowing bin and a skinny teenager flopped on a neatly made bed.

Harry stared at the ceiling and willed time to move faster. He looked over at the clock and to his frustration it only read four minutes later than when he had last checked. With a sigh he rolled off his bed and trudged over to his trunk and resigned himself to sorting through it again.

After forty minutes of sorting through his trunk and making trips to empty his bin, Harry looked at the clock and saw that the time was 3:20. He snorted to himself. Of course the Weasleys would be late.

He perused the bookshelf looking for something interesting. Not that he actually intended on reading any of the books. A knock sounded from downstairs. Harry shot out the door and bounded down the stairs to answer the door before Aunt Petunia had even left the living room.

To Harry's surprise, the door opened to reveal not a Weasley, but Hermione.

"Hey Harry" she burst out before hugging him. "How've you been?"

"I-er-good I guess. Aaah- not that I'm not glad to see you or anything- but what are you doing here?" Harry stuttered.

"Oh it was a very last minute thing- last minute meaning that we only found out thirty minutes ago- but my parents are taking us to the burrow. I was heading there anyway so Mr. Weasley asked us to swing by your place and bring you along." she explained.

Now that he had gotten over the shock of seeing her, Harry noticed that Hermione looked different. Her hair was pulled back in a very bushy ponytail and she wasn't leaning over under the weight of a dozen books.

"Boy, who is it?" came Uncle Vernon's shout from the lounge room. Hermione looked a little shocked but entered the house, moving past Harry to see his relatives plopped on the couch like dumplings.

"This is my friend from school- Hermione. She is here to pick me up." Harry informed them. "Hermione, this is my Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley." he said gesturing to each of them in turn.

Dudley looked slightly shellshocked while Petunia screwed up her nose in distaste. It was Vernon who proved to be the most unpleasant though when he said to them, "Well take the boy and be off with you. We don't need any more freakishness in this house."

"Come one Hermione let's just get my trunk and we can go" said Harry with an annoyed look sent in the direction of his relatives.

With that the two teenagers went upstairs to Harry's room. When he opened the door, Harry became very glad that he had cleaned his room. Grabbing his trunk and Hedwig's cage, Harry made to leave his room but before he got the chance, Hermione snatched Hedwig's cage from him.

"I'll take that" she said before marching out the door. The pair tromped down the stairs and headed straight for the door leaving the Dursleys with nothing but a shout of "Bye" from Harry.

They walked towards a silver car that was parked in the driveway. Hermione opened the boot and gestured for Harry to put his trunk inside, next to hers. Harry did so before Hermione shut the boot and the par hopped in on either side of the car. Hedwig came to rest between Harry's feet and Hermione placed Crookshanks- who had previously been sitting on the seat- on her lap.

"You must be Harry" said Hermione's mother who had turned around in the passenger seat. "It's a pleasure to meet you, we've heard so much about you." Harry glanced over at Hermione who flushed a bit.

"The pleasure is mine Mrs. Granger" he said, shaking the offered hand.

"Please call me Emma, Mrs Granger makes me feel old. This is my husband Dan" said Mrs. Gra- Emma.

"Nice to meet you Harry. Have you been enjoying your holidays?" said Dan.

"Yes thank you sir." replied Harry who was beginning to notice that the two dentists were extremely amicable towards him considering that they ha never met.

"Well then, we're off to see the Weasleys" said Dan starting the car.

**Well, there you have it. The first chapter. Not much has happened but it will heat up later. In the mean time please shoot me a review or a PM with any comments or queries and I might even get the next chapter up soon. **

**Thanks for reading.**


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